Incontinence II

The HSD asked me to bring a case of Depends for mom, and explained that care staff were trying to gain mom’s consensus about wearing the briefs. If they caught her as she was getting up, they had luck. If not, getting her to switch into them was not easy. I suggested removing her underwear from her drawer and replacing them with the Depends briefs. The HSD wanted to test mom for a UTI before taking that step. A UTI could explain mom’s sudden changes.

Today, four days after the HSD called to share his conversation with mom about heading to the dining room with wet pants, the one where mom said no one would notice when she sat down, the one that made me laugh a little because how like my mother to try to brush something under the table, so to speak, that she thinks everyone else is making a ridiculous a fuss over, the community called to discuss continued incontinence challenges. In four days, my mom has gone from being aware of wetting herself, to not. She isn’t changing herself when this happens, no matter what she’s wearing, underwear or briefs. The care manager who called today asked if she could remove mom’s underwear from the drawer. I said to go ahead. And while I never, ever want anyone to have a UTI, I hoped mom did. It could have explained so much. She does not have a UTI. This is part of her global decline.